RIBA names top 20 British homes for the House of the Year 2018 longlist

A home in an old gin distillery, a house that cost only £100,000, and a property inspired by a frustrating piano piece are among the 20 buildings vying be named RIBAHouse of the Year 2018.

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has released a longlist of 20 projects for the annual award, which recognises a recently completed house or extension deemed to be the best examples of British residential architecture.

Gin Distillery, by Open Practice Architecture

This year’s shortlist includes Open Practice Architecture’s conversion of a derelict Victorian gin distillery in London’s Whitechapel area, and a gabled house in Belfast clad in black timber, that Family Architects created for some downsizers with a budget of £100,000.

Also on the list is a house called Vex designed by London architecture studio Chance de Silva. The stacked circular house was formed from poured concrete in a torturous process inspired by Erik Satie’s avant garde piano composition Vexations, which requires musicians to make 840 repetitions of the same theme.

Vex, by Chance de Silva

Liddicoat & Goldhill also made the longlist with The Makers House, a light-filled house squeezed into a narrow plot in Hackney, as did 31/44 Architects contrasting red brick extension to a an end-of-terrace house in East Dulwich.

The 2018 RIBA House of the Year Award longlist follows the announcement of the 2018 RIBA National Awards.

Black House, by AR Design Studio

Some projects made it on to both lists, including Caroline Place by Amin Taha + Groupwork, Coastal House by 6a Architects, and HaysomWardMiller Architects’ Lochside house.

The winner of the 2018 RIBA House of the Year Award will be announced this autumn.

Coastal House, by 6a architects

Last year’s winner was Caring Wood, a house in Kent designed for multi-generational family living by British architects James Macdonald Wright and Niall Maxwell.

Past winners of the award, which was set up in 2001 and originally called the Manser Medal, include Flint House by Skene Catling de la Peña and and Slip House by Carl Turner Architects.